Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

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ATTP;^iPT.^ to BKIBK .TOHNSTOXK. xli
euniity arising from their wish t.o supplant liim in liis oHices, the one in
Galloway, and the other in ^\uuanclalc. The wily Enj^lish M'ardon lost no
opportunity of using this feeling for the advancement of his master's
interests, l\y preventing tlie ]Maxv,'ells and the Johnstoncs from comhining
cordially in defence of their countrj'. In the previous Fehiaiary he had
boasted to Lord Shrewsbury that he had long endeavoured to stir up discord
between Johnstone and the Master of Jvlaxv/ell, and that a feud had broken
ouli betwixt them, which the Scottish privy council had in vain tried to
setile. He had oflered Jolmstoue three hundred crowns as a bribe for him-
self, one hundred for his brother, the abbot of Soulseat, and one hundred for
his followers, if they would put the Master of Maxwell iu the warden's
power. The writer states that Johnstone had entered into the plot, but that
he and his friends "were all so false" that no confidence could bo placed in
them. But he would be glad to aunoy and entrap the Master of ilaxwell or
Johnstone, to the king's majesty's honour and his own poor honesty .^
In Xovember 1545, the Scottish army assembled at Dumfries, and Loch-
mabeu and Thrieve were retaken from the English, but Carlaverock continued
iu their possession till May 1546. In the following April 15-17, the English
privy council, in a letter to Dr. AYotton, their ambassador in France,
announce, among other news, that the Scots of late having made many cruel
incursions, the warden of the west marches. Lord Wharton, had been com-
pelled to make reprisals, and Iiad taken Johnstone in an ambush.- "\V^e have
a full narrative of this exploit from the warden himself in a letter to the
Duke of Somerset, lord protector of England.
Lord Wharton had received overtures fiom several Scotchmen in Annan-
dale to serve the English king, and these he resolved to use for his own
piirposes. Among others two liundred of the name of L'ving had oflered
their service, and boasted that " except the bodies of the iard Johnstone and
1 Wharton to Shrewsbury, lOt'a February 1.544-5.
2 Calendar of .State r.-H-r.', 13 17-1 ,".;-..?. p. 11.